Welcome to Unlimited Parenting. This is a show
where we talk about what it's like having children
with disabilities and or special health care
needs. I was about to say being parents with
special health care needs and that could be true
too. That's going to be another episode. What
it's like parenting differently abled children.
You have your own special health care needs.
Exactly. Another episode coming. This is part
three of our series on the 10 steps to special
education. So we've already done steps one and
two and three and four. So at this point in your
journey, your child has been assessed for an
IEP and they have been found eligible. And now
you're at the stage where you're going to set
the meeting and then attend. the meeting so if
all of this is new to you i do suggest starting
back at the beginning if you are going in for
a refresher for this upcoming school year and
your child had an iep in the year previous you
probably don't need to go more yeah this might
be a good starting point if you unless of course
you enjoy the sound of our voices and then i
encourage you go back there's lots of giggling
um Okay, so just so that we can set the stage,
step five is before the meeting and step six
is the IEP meeting held and the plan written.
So all of this applies to no matter what state,
what state, no matter what city you are in Idaho.
If you're in the great state of Ada. it applies
that's where you every that's my favorite thing
to say that's my favorite thing to say from everywhere
from everywhere so let's again set the stage
so the meeting is scheduled so when you're scheduling
an iep meeting that is coming from the team someone
yeah you're gonna head yeah you're not scheduling
it yeah but all participants for the meeting
are going to be contacted and it's going to be
scheduled at a mutually beneficial time so this
though is a good Hard to pause and say that there
may be less people than was at your eligibility
meeting. A thousand percent. Yeah. Because you
might not have needed those speech services or
some you might not have an SLP at your upcoming
meeting. Yeah. But the minimum is the four core
members, which is the parent or guardian, the
district representative, the special education
teacher and the general education teacher. And
the student, if appropriate. Yes. Thank you for
saying that because I could easily go down so
many rabbit holes with this. Talk about a deep
dive. There are three different IEPs. Oh, yeah.
So we're going to assume that your child, that
in our scenario, we're going to look at a standard
IEP. Because talk about getting into the weeds.
Yeah. There's the early childhood. There's the
standard. And then there's the transition to
adulthood. So we're going to, we're going to.
And they each have different standards and requirements.
Yeah. So. And those are one -offs. Exactly. So
if your child is between kindergarten and 13,
14. Yep. Then you're here with us. Yep. Okay.
So we're contacting all of the people. Schedule
the meeting at a convenient time and location.
Notify parents of the purpose, time, location
of meeting. You should also be notified as the
parent on who will be attending the meeting.
And that you can, in fact, invite other people
to attend with you. Anyone who can speak to how
your child's disability affects them. Or alternatively,
if you just have a friend who's maybe a meticulous
note taker. and you just want to capture everything,
you could do that as well. I would also say this
is a really good time to, if there are those
people that maybe cannot attend, but they still
want to provide input, like maybe you have an
outside BI or an outside physical therapist,
this is a really good opportunity for them to
put some of those thoughts on paper and get those
to the team. This is also where I always ask
if... There is a draft copy of the IEP available
if I am able to look at that so that I kind of
have eyes on it prior to going into the meeting.
But that's not that's a best practice. That's
not nowhere in the law says that they have to.
and that might be more likely to happen if you
didn't roll from your eligibility meeting into
your iep so if you're someone like me who didn't
have that happen then that's more likely to happen
because that's what did happen as i did see a
draft iep prior to the meeting but i don't think
you did because you just rolled from correct
one meeting into the next so every situation
is so different okay So step six, we're at the
meeting. So at the IEP meeting, the team is going
to essentially work together to, I mean, you
can conceptualize it like building a roadmap
for your child's success for this school year.
yeah so this is your opportunity to bring your
voice your expertise your data your knowledge
about your child and what you want for them yeah
in the future too yes i think sometimes parents
are a little nervous that they are going to be
having to write the goals and that they're going
to need to be pre -loaded with all this information
and that's not that's that's not at all it is
a team we are all these are educators who this
is their job and so they're going to work amongst
the team to really figure out those best supports
and goals. I mean, I think if anything, in my
experience, it's been they write everything and
then you provide that last minute input. But
I also don't want people to get the impression
that you're only there to provide the last minute
input because your input is equally as important.
However, I mean, for the most part, I know for
myself, I'm not an educational professional.
I'm not a teacher. I'm not a paraprofessional.
I'm not any of that. So I really do lean on them
to be able to write those. I know that you have
supported and that I have supported teachers
who are also parents of children with disabilities.
And again, that's a more unique situation to
be in because you understand what it's like to
be in a classroom. Yeah, that, yeah. I got into
the weeds. Right. So when you're looking at your
IEP, which I don't I don't have in front of me,
but I highly encourage you to view our articulate
on the deep dive in the IEP, because that's also
going to go through early childhood and transition
to adulthood. Right. And it'll show you page
by page of the IEP. So if you're looking at the
first page, the first thing that you're going
to see is demographic information. And I. I strongly
encourage you to double check that for so many
different reasons. Yes. So people love to pronounce
the name of the street that I live on wrong.
And half the time I don't correct them because
I'm like, what does it matter if the lady at
Albertsons who hands me my son's meds doesn't
know how to pronounce? Your street name. But
I have found that that does become a problem
if, let's say, for example, your child is melting
down and they're trying to look at your demographic
information to give you a call because that's
part of your crisis plan or whatever the case
may be. And not only is your street name spelt
funny, but your phone number got transcribed
and wrong, too. And then now they cannot contact
you. So I strongly suggest everyone checks their
demographic information, even if this is your
first time it could have been transcribed wrong
and then if it's your 100th time because this
last year we our zip code just had randomly been
changed we haven't moved since 2011 so always
check it they finally took you from zones and
gave you a zip code it's weird i don't know what
it was and i don't know how i even caught it
because that's not something i even keep my like
look at because we have lived there for 11 years
and it hasn't changed but it did i don't know
so yes update your demographic just lay eyes
on it yeah important for all of the reasons uh
and then we're gonna another thing that that
first page of iep is gonna do is check to see
who's in attendance So are all of the people
it's not that you need a quorum to have an IEP
meeting but you kind of do are all of the people
that are there that need to be there are they
there now in some instances some school districts
will continue to have a meeting if not all of
the people are there. If yeah. but best practice
again is that you know about that in advance
and that you have signed agreeing to excuse that
individual i have been in an iep meeting where
the speech language pathologists needed to get
up and go to support another student so we Reworked
the agenda. Exactly. My brain just. Both of us
just stopped working. Yes. So they changed the
order in which the agenda was supposed to roll.
So the speech language pathologist was able to
go first so that they could then be excused.
Perfect. So just remember that, too. And then
everyone is going to sign their name that they
were in attendance. Now, we're assuming that
this is the very first IEP. Ever. In the state
of Idaho, if it is your very first IEP ever,
you are signing that you're in attendance and
that you agree. However, if this is not your
first IEP and this is just this year's evaluation,
you're signing that you're in attendance only,
not that you agree. I am assuming that we may
have some individuals listening to this who may
be coming from other states. I'm not saying that
you're from California, but I am saying that
I do know in California. Every time you sign
an IEP, you're signing that you agree. And that
is not true in the state of Idaho. No. And we
get a lot of those calls. Yeah. We get a lot
of those questions because in other states, states
do things different. And the way Idaho does it,
you are only signing for attendance. This is
a question we see a lot in the Facebook groups.
Don't sign it. Unfortunately, that's not accurate
information. Parents absolutely have time after
the IEP meeting to... till you know 10 days baby
exactly to get in and lodge I don't want to say
lodge their complaints but really um you know
try to work with the team and figure out what
they didn't like what they weren't agreeing to
and then but you are only if it's if it's a second
third fourth you're just signing that you are
you were there in attendance exactly yeah but
you have a lot of other options that you can
do if for some reason you you're in a disagreement
if you've signed and then you've gone home afterwards
and you thought ah crud i don't really care for
that that much then you still have things that
you can do to go back another thing that happens
on the first page that i think we get a lot of
questions about is medicaid billing so when you
sign or check the box and say yes that they can
build medicaid on your behalf All that they're
doing is getting some more money from the school.
If you have a child with a developmental disability
or a special health care need and you are accessing
supports in the community through the family
directed service pathway or the traditional pathway
and you have received a budget from the Department
of Health and Welfare, a lot of times parents
become concerned that once they check that box,
that means that that money is coming from their
community supports budget. And I can assure you
with every fiber of my being that it is not coming
from your community supports budget. It is, in
fact, just money from Medicaid to help support
the school. Absolutely. School -based Medicaid
is completely different from our home and community
-based supports. They're different buckets. One
is not going to affect the other. And you're
right. A lot of times parents don't want to sign
just because of that misinformation. Schools
are not getting rich by billing Medicaid for
our students. In fact, Medicaid reimbursement
rates are below that of usually the community.
i was just about to say schools aren't even breaking
even when they build money they're not so this
is just one more funding stream for them to both
stream exactly and kids like my child are expensive
he requires personal care support speech supports
behavioral intervention so those are medicaid
reimbursable services that the school can bill
for and it helps offset some of his costs exactly
yeah so it's one of those things where it's like
i might i mean Any way I can help you, I can.
Absolutely. And at any given time, if you sign
that and don't and then want to pull that back,
you can. No questions asked. No questions asked.
Absolutely. So the next thing you're going to
see on there is your plot, essentially the present
levels of academic and functional performance.
Sorry, I like to call it a benchmark. People
just know what that means because we call it
fancy things. Only because we like to, though.
So it's a benchmark. It explains how learning
differences affect your child's ability to access
general education curriculum. It explains how
your child handles academic subjects and everyday
functional activities from socializing to tying
shoelaces. And this is really important that
you give your parent input. Yeah. On these benchmarks
because you also are your child's. Right. Professional.
If it's helpful. I would also like to say when
you're providing these vignettes about your child
to also contextualize it in your brain for academic
settings. Yeah. Because a lot of times I go,
well, that's never going to work. And then I'm
only thinking about it in the context of home.
And then I'm like, oh, my gosh, it might actually
work at school because there's more kids acting
as role models. So remember, before you give
advice, to put it in the context of an academic
setting and not a community support setting.
Yeah. I've done that before. How many times have
we heard? I mean, I've looked at my child's teacher
and gone, you've got to be kidding me. He can
do that? He does that at school? Exactly. Yeah.
So yeah, think educationally context. So then
we're going to move on. We've looked at from
what you write in the PLAP and the PLOF and the
benchmark section. From there, that's what they
use to determine annual goals. So when they're
talking about annual goals, they're going to
say who, what's going to be achieved, what skill,
what behavior, how, in what manner, at what level,
where. In what setting and under which conditions
and when, by what date and time. So we're setting
these SMART goals, measurable, attainable, time
bound. What's the S and the R, do you remember?
Specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and
time bound. We are realistic and timely. Yes,
we did it. And that's the big thing, like how
this is where you as a parent, you're going to
know when they're collecting data. and when you
can access that data so is it going to be weekly
monthly how are they collecting it is observation
is it you know it's good information in here
also i'm going to take this part to say that
you should be receiving those observational data
that measurement at least concurrent with report
cards if not more depending on how yeah reporting
is done in your iep but it's at least concurrent
with report cards so let's talk more about goals
in specific strength based goals so these are
goals that build on what your child does well
while also acknowledging challenges but focusing
on using their strengths to grow because how
we talk about our children is sometimes who they
become right and we've seen especially especially
and maybe this is just me but in transition the
language becomes even more important because
the child is in the room. So I'm just going to
give you some examples of some strength -based
IEP goals that I made, and then Melissa will
tell me if they pass or if they don't pass. There
are no tricks. I feel like she's alive. So we're
going to pretend that we know a child with autism.
So given a visual schedule, Marcus will independently
transition between classroom activities with
no more than one prompt four out of five days
of the week. Okay. That one seems good. I like
that one. Yeah. Hopefully these are all good.
None of these are a trick, I promise. So then
I picked a student with ADHD who enjoys hands
-on activities. Using a fidget tool and movement
breaks, Janelle will complete multi -step assignments
with 80 % accuracy in four out of five discrete
trials. Yeah. I know when you're going to gather,
how you're gathering, when you're gathering.
Yeah. Yeah. And then this sets the teacher up
to know, I'm going to need a fidget tool and
I'm going to need movement breaks. Because it's
not. Janelle really struggles with completing
multi -step assignments. So going forward. Teacher
will use a fidget tool and movement breaks. See,
that was unnecessary. Yeah, just wording it that
way, it doesn't make any sense. And oftentimes
we see IEPs written that way, whether it is intentional
or not, but it's not strength -based, and it
sets that student up, unfortunately, just to
be deficit -based. So we don't want that. No.
Can I do one more, though? Oh, please. Can I
just do one more? Because this one I was proud
of. Okay. Given text -to -speech tools, Eli will
summarize a grade -level passage orally with
key details in three out of four opportunities.
Wow. I know. Thank you. But that is a great use
of assistive technology because a lot of times
teams freak out. Yeah. When parents say, hey,
wait, let's incorporate some assistive technology.
Teams freak. Especially when you're using an
AAC device that they're not trained on. Uh -huh.
And justifiable. Those are great. Those are measurable.
They're timely. That is exactly like having a
student who comes in and nobody knows how to
speak that language. That's exactly what it is.
Because it's just a rare language from a country
that's far away from us and we don't know how
to speak it. But guess what? We're going to learn.
Guess what? We're going to learn today. And now
I feel really bad because I just dropped my kid
off at school this morning with a teen that he's
very... And you know what? They're going to learn.
They're going to learn today. I haven't got a
phone call, so... okay so now we've uh we've
got some benchmarks we've written some goals
so now we need to determine who is going to help
them with these goals because we've decided that
this child does need specialized instruction
so we talk about special education and related
supports we're looking at how often will the
child receive these services so number of times
per day or week How long each session will last.
So that's the number of minutes for OT, occupational
therapy, physical therapy, speech language pathology,
behavioral intervention, positive behavioral
interventions and supports, whatever your child
is needing help with. And then where the services
will be provided. So that can be in a push -in
setting in the classroom or a pull -out setting.
In a small group setting, in the special education
classroom, in the resource room, and when services
will begin and when they will end. So for my
child, this looked like positive behavioral interventions
and supports that he was pulled out of the classroom
for and he went to the special education classroom.
He did that three times a week. I don't know,
20 minutes each time or something like that.
But if you were getting behavioral intervention,
one -to -one support too, that would also be
found in that service minutes grid. So we have,
especially last year, it really felt like this
was a big hot topic last year. How do I figure
out? in my child's IEP where his one -to -one
is. And you're going to find it in that service
grid. You can even go so far as to say, okay,
well, if school starts at eight and it ends at
three, this is how many minutes elapse between
eight and three. And then you can go to your
service grid and you can say, oh, 1 ,600 hours
for one -to -one. Then you know you're hitting
full -time support. So those are ways that you
can do it without even needing to ask someone,
I guess. And then you're going to look at placement.
So this is really where we start talking about
LRE or least restricted environment and how much
time is a child spending with his typically developing
peers. Because the goal is always to spend as
much time with your typically developing peers
as appropriate. And so that'll look like gen
ed time. On an IEP. So you'll see, you know,
how much is the student in a general education
setting versus a special education setting. And
there will be percentages. And as we move through
and become more and more restrictive, we have
different placement options that may. Right.
Because you could have a child who is pulled
out for math, but then spends all the rest of
their time with their typically developing peers.
Or alternatively, on the other end of the spectrum,
you may have a child who only sees their typically
developing peers at lunch or at a gymnasium.
Adaptive PE or something like that. So I wanted
to just read out some options. that we have seen
in the state of Idaho of different least restrictive
environments, because least restrictive environment
is always supposed to be a philosophy and less
of a place. But the philosophy also has to take
place somewhere. So it could be. One of these
classrooms, a combination of these classrooms,
and the way it can fluctuate over the school
year is also important. So just because you get
an Excel, an Ascent, an SLC classroom, Structured
Learning Center, doesn't mean that you're going
to be in there forever. Okay, again, sorry. Here
are some options. The general education classroom,
the general education classroom with supports.
a self -contained special education classroom,
a private school with a program or teaching style
that meets a specific need, a state school like
the School for the Deaf and the Blind over in
Gooding, a homebound instruction, online school,
residential care, treatment facility, and again,
any combination of those above. So another thing
that you're going to see on there is accommodations
and modifications. So accommodations, again,
are changes to how a student learns. So that's
going back up to that IEP goal of that student
who needed a fidget spinner or who needed extra
time or movement breaks. Those are all accommodations
versus a modification, which is what's really.
separating out an IEP from a 504, which is that
you need that specially designed instruction.
So that's when that one student went to math
class. They left the typical education classroom
and went to a different room to do math. And
that was their modification. So you're going
to get like a service delivery statement. Right.
Can you give some more examples of modifications?
Because I can't come up with them off the top
of my head because I didn't really. Well, I mean,
any modification to curriculum. So, for example,
my son is a ninth grader. He is not doing ninth
grade algebra. But instead, a math equivalent
for his developmental age is sorting activities.
So we are very much altering his curriculum.
We're modifying his curriculum. He still has
math curriculum. Exactly. It's just not what
his typical peers in ninth grade are doing. It's
what's appropriate for him. Absolutely. But no
matter what, when you send your son to school,
you know he's doing reading. I know he's doing
math. It's just whatever is appropriate. How
are we modifying it for that student? Yeah. And
we're also going to head into a section called
Participation in State Local District Assessments.
And I think that almost everyone participates
in assessments. And again. just like their all
of their education it's to what extent is appropriate
for them so in some cases that looks like a child
who completes the whole assessment or gets through
the first 20 questions or just clicks through
one right yep okay whatever that student needs
Yeah. And I kind of look at it and my student
is one of those that probably clicks through
two or three. But I kind of look at as it all
of his peers get that opportunity and he needs
that opportunity as well. So whether or not he
accesses the entirety of it, no big deal. He
has the opportunity to access it in whatever
capacity works for him. And that's another that's
another really good segue into. It may be different
in the great state of Ada versus other parts
of the state of Idaho. So a parent may call and
say, my child is only going to school four days
a week. And the first question is always going
to be, do the general education students go to
school four days a week? Because if the answer
to that is yes, your child is a general education
student before they are a special education student.
So if all students only go to school four days
a week, then your student will only go to school
four days a week. Exactly. It's that. If all
students start at 9 p .m. or 9 a .m., sorry,
then you're going to start at 9 a .m. Yes. It
becomes a problem. When we are shortening school
days for special education. When your child needs
to get on the bus 30 minutes before the school
day starts. That's when we start asking some
questions. So what if made it to the IEP? What
are we going to do if something doesn't feel
right with goal services placement? Well, first
off, you can always put it in writing. Yeah.
Always put it in writing and say, I have, I would
like to make a formal dispute. And I know that
those sound like scary words, but they're really
not. I just, I would like the team to meet again
so that we can talk about. some of the things
that I noticed that we only have 30 minutes of
behavioral intervention in our service grid and
I just think that given Janelle's eligibility
report she could really benefit from more time
can I can we me and then we can go over why it
was 30 minutes do we think that maybe it'll restrict
her Independence if she has more time are we
just kind of trying to it's really just bringing
the conversation and that's I guess the Thing
that I want people to leave with, you always
have the right to call an IEP meeting, whether
it's off cycle or not. You always have that right.
Put it in writing. Always. But you always are
within your rights to call a team meeting and
get everybody on board. So you're sitting here
right now listening to this and school has not
started yet or school has just started. I tried
to time these to where they would all be out
before school started. And that, you know, really
just did not work in my favor. But holy cow,
school started so early. I know. I was not ready
for school to start. So what do you do today?
I would say that number one, you can always,
especially if this is not your first IEP, request
a draft ahead of the meeting. Review it. Be prepared.
Use that small window of time that you have with
the staff. Use it wisely by knowing what's coming.
Yeah, absolutely. Review the evaluation. Review
the eligibility. Write down your questions. Say,
hey, we're just coming off the summer. There
could be new skills that have been gained. You
might say, you might get the old IEP and say,
oh my gosh, like we already know how to do this.
I think that we need to call a meeting earlier
than normal so we can all come back together,
meet, and I can say, hey, so -and -so developed
this skill over the summer. I think we might
need to readjust and it might need some new assessments.
And that's okay. And the team actually wants
that input from you. They want all input. They
do. They really do. Come with a list of strengths.
Again, if your child gained a new skill, request
specific supports and services. Come with your
data. Come with your data. So, for instance,
I could say, oh, my son, over the summer, he
went from four hours of therapy a week to 29
hours of therapy a week over the summer. And,
oh, my gosh, the leaps and bounds of great things
that he did. over this summer have been astronomical.
And you have the data to support. But my question
also becomes, how do we translate those skills
into the school setting? On another podcast.
Exactly. Bring a family member, bring a friend.
This is the time to make sure that, hey, I'm
going to request this IEP meeting. I'm going
to ask for it. You know, as soon as possible.
But if they give me some dates, can you, I'll
shoot them to you so you can come with me. Speak
up if you need more time. If you need a break.
Okay, yeah. In the IEP meeting, I need to go
get a drink of water. I need to go to the hall
and collect myself. 100%. I need to pop a piece
of chocolate in. Yeah, something. And also, just
remember that, you know, someone could be working
through their lunch. Someone, you could have
just been. gotten off the phone with medicaid
it could be a hundred handful of different things
just just by two cents so today we've covered
steps five and six so scheduling the meeting
and holding the meeting and these are arguably
kind of the crux of the whole special education
process is really this iep meeting And when it's
written with your input and built around strengths,
it becomes more than a legal document. It's really
a plan for the child and it's used faithfully.
So next time we're going to dive into step seven
and eight, which means there's only two parts
left of this. And this from here on kind of becomes
how to adjust the IEP, how to adapt it, what
happens at the three -year mark, because no matter
what, you're getting more assessments than two.
So until then, please remember that you know
your child best. Please reach out to us. If you
have any questions, go forth and be a great member
of the IEP team. That was like Daniel Tiger.
Great. Daniel Tiger. The frosted blade. You're
great. Daniel. Daniel Tiger would have been like,
you're great. I'm great. We're great. I believe
you on that one. Bye. Thank you so much, everyone
out there for listening in. If you are in Idaho
or planning on moving to Idaho and have any questions
on systems or services for children with disabilities,
please consider reaching out to us on our website
at iPullIdaho .org or by calling us at 208 -342
-5884. Be sure to tune in next time. Until then,
this has been Unlimited Parenting. Thanks for
listening!